Blackthorne

The game focuses around protagonist Kyle "Blackthorne" Vlaros, out for revenge on Sarlac and his minions. The gameplay involves large platforming sequences, in which Kyle can run and climb around the environment, find keys and items and progress to the end of each maze-like level. Combat in Blackthorne takes the form of gunfights. Both Blackthorne and his enemies can press against walls to avoid incoming bullets.

Blackthorne can also fire blindly behind himself. During the game, Kyle uses a pump-action shotgun as his primary weapon; notably, Blackthorne can fire backwards without turning around. As the game progresses, Androthi allies will help him upgrade the weapon, increasing its speed and power.

Blackthorne is set on the planet Tuul, which has existed for centuries without human knowledge. All of this time, Tuul's people have been ruled over by a single shaman who "was blessed with all knowledge". Years before the game begins, Thoros, the latest ruler, finds it near impossible to choose between his two sons as the next ruler. Believing it will solve the dilemma, he leads them to the deserts and kills himself.

His body becomes two stones, light and dark, and he gives one to each boy to rule their own kingdoms respectively. The people of the lightstone form the kingdom of Androth, and the people of the darkstone form Ka'dra'suul. But while Androth respects their stone, Ka'dra'suul reject theirs, and are eventually transformed into monsters by it. In this time, a ka'dra named Sarlac seizes power.

The inspiration for Blackthorne came from Another World and Flashback. For the first versions, the sprites for game characters were done using rotoscoping techniques just like Prince of Persia, using over 1000 frames to get smooth, lifelike animation. The Macintosh version improved the quality by using prerendered, motion-captured sprites. Interplay had intended to port the game to Sega Genesis but instead did so for the Sega 32X.

There were also plans to port the game to PlayStation and Sega Saturn, but those plans were cancelled. A 3DO version was showcased by Interplay at E3 1995, but the port was never released for unknown reasons.

Electronic Gaming Monthly gave the SNES version their "Game of the Month" award, praising its dark tone, amazingly smooth animation, complex and intelligent gameplay, and the ability to kill prisoners after getting information from them. GamePro gave the SNES version a positive review, calling it "Flashback with an attitude". They particularly praised its detailed graphics and stronger emphasis on action over puzzle-solving as compared to similar games. Nintendo Power praised the game as "Total fun!" noting its animation and sound quality and stated that it had better play control than games like Out of This World, Prince of Persia and Flashback but was "still a bit slow".

They gave the 32X version a positive review as well, remarking that "with a solid graphical overhaul, Blackthorne delivers where many of the 16-bit conversions flounder in the 32X library".